kylie_minoguefandomcom-20200223-history
Spinning Around
Spinning Around is the lead single from Kylie Minogue's 7th studio album "Light Years." It was written by Ira Shickman, Osborne Bingham, Kara DioGuardi and Paula Abdul & produced by Mike Spencer. The single was released on June 19, 2000. Song Background In 1997, Kylie released her sixth studio album "Impossible Princess." The album represented a drastic change in her musical direction, shifting from her signature dance-pop styles to incorporate elements of electronica and pop rock. It was her second album to be released on British record label Deconstruction and became a success in her native Australia, peaking at number four on the ARIA Albums Chart. In the United Kingdom, "Impossible Princess" was less successful than her previous albums and peaked at number ten on the UK Albums Chart. The album also suffered from poor reviews in the UK as commentators criticised its different musical approach; many also considered that Minogue's career was over. Despite embarking on a successful promotional tour, Kylie was dropped by Deconstruction in 1999. She then signed to another British record label, Parlophone. After various discussions, Kylie decided to do what she did "best" and record a simple pop album inspired by disco and Europop entitled "Light Years." Paula Abdul had based the song on her divorce from clothing designer Brad Beckerman and had originally intended to record it for her own studio album, but it was given to Kylie after the album failed to materialise. The song was the first major songwriting project for Kara DioGuardi, who had not been offered any notable projects previously. In an interview discussing the development of "Light Years", Kylie revealed that the song had initially been found as a demo in New York by her A&R executive Jamie Nelson, who believed it would be "perfect" for her. After listening to the demo, Kylie agreed to record it and felt the song had the potential to be a hit. "Spinning Around" was then released as the lead single from the album on June 13, 2000 in Australia and on June 19, 2000 in the United Kingdom. Kylie was photographed by Liz Collins for the artwork of the record. In her 2012 fashion retrospective book "Kylie\Fashion", she wrote of the collaboration, saying: "With 'Spinning Around' it was time to be pop-tastic again. Liz Collins's aesthetic was very much about a natural beauty." Song Composition Similar to most of the songs from "Light Years," "Spinning Around" is a "string-laden" dance-pop track with prominent influences from disco music. According to the sheet music of the song published by BMG Rights Management at Musicnotes.com, it is composed in the key of F♯ minor and features a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. Kylie's vocal range spans from the low note of F3 to the high note of C5. Addressing the theme of reinvention, the lyrics declare that Kylie has changed and learned from her past mistakes; it contains lines like "I'm spinning around/Move out of my way ... I'm not the same" and "Mistakes that I made have given me the strength to really believe." In an analysis of the lyrics of the song, Pom Avoledo from Blogcritics wrote that Minogue demands attention in the chorus towards the changes in her personality and asserts that people appreciate them, in the line "I know you're feeling me because you like it like this." The first verse deals with Kylie ridding herself of items and symbols from her past and starting afresh, evidenced in lines like "Threw away my old clothes, got myself a better wardrobe." The critic felt that in the second verse, Kylie faces her mistakes and accepts herself as she is. The bridge of the song features the repetition of the hook "You know you like it like thi''s" with Kylie's voice being vocoded. Chris True from AllMusic felt that through the lyrics, Kylie was admitting that releasing "Impossible Princess" in 1997 was not the best decision. Chart Performance "Spinning Around" was a commercial success. In Australia, it was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) prior to its release on the strength of pre-orders. On the chart date of July 2, 2000, it debuted at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart. The following week, it dropped to number five and it stayed in the top ten for four consecutive weeks in total. It was Kylie's first number one single in the country since "Confide in Me" (which was released six years earlier). The song charted for a total of 12 weeks and was later certified platinum by the ARIA for shipments of 70,000 units. It also performed well in New Zealand, entering the RIANZ Singles Chart at number eight and peaking at number two. The song spent a total of 17 weeks on the chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for sales of 7,500 units. With first-week sales of over 80,000 units, "Spinning Around" debuted atop the UK Singles Chart on the chart date of 1 July 2000, becoming Kylie's first number one single in a decade; her previous chart-topping single was "Tears on My Pillow" from her second studio album "Enjoy Yourself." "Spinning Around" was Kylie's fifth number one single in the United Kingdom. She became one of only two artists to have a number one single in three consecutive decades, achieving this in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. The other artist to hold this distinction is Madonna, whose song "American Pie" topped the UK singles chart in March 2000. "Spinning Around" charted inside the top ten for two weeks and inside the top forty for eight weeks. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) certified it silver for shipments of 200,000 units. As of March 2014, the single has sold 300,000 units in the country according to the Official Charts Company. "Spinning Around" was deemed a successful "''comeback" single for Kylie and (along with parent album "Light Years"), it helped relaunch her career. Critical Reception "Spinning Around" received favourable reviews from music critics. Chris True from AllMusic selected it as a highlight from the album and said it was a "fun and string-laden declaration that she may have made a mistake back in 1997." Pom Avoledo praised Kylie for returning to her signature dance-pop style and complimented her for giving "Spinning Around" an "air of elegance and sensuality which was lacking in her early material." A very positive review came from Siobhan Grogan of NME, who favoured the chorus of the song and commended Kylie for coming back to "what she knows best." The critic felt the song would become a hit in gay clubs and commented that "Around is made of the same fizzing, giddy disco-pop that made Kylie famous in the first place." Gary Crossing from Yahoo! Music (who gave "Light Years" a mixed review) felt that "Spinning Around" was one of the better tracks from the album and called it a "slinky little numbe''r." In his review of Kylie's 2004 greatest hits album "Ultimate Kylie," Jason Shawahn from About.com praised the inclusion of songs like "Spinning Around" and other tracks from "Light Years," calling them "''a blessing for domestic music consumers, since that disc has never found its way onto official US release, though with any collection of Minogue hits, one simply has to look at what they have in their collection versus what they don't." Music Video The accompanying music video for "Spinning Around" was directed by Dawn Shadforth. As the song was meant to be Kylie's "comeback" single and mark a "decisive return" to pop music following "Impossible Princess," the video did not contain any dark themes and put the "emphasis firmly upon dance, fun, and freedom." The video begins with a shot of Kylie's feet as she enters a disco-like setting. She is then shown dancing on the floor with a man, whom she later flirts with on a sofa. Scenes of her performing a dance routine on and in front of a bar and laying on neon blue and gold lights are interspersed throughout the video. Most of the shots are focused on Kylie's body and various scenes feature her wearing gold lamé hotpants. Accolades At the 14th ARIA Music Awards ceremony in 2000, "Spinning Around" won the award for "Best Pop Release". Legacy Following its release, the music video for "Spinning Around" became popular for the gold hotpants that Kylie sported. It resulted in a media sensation regarding her bottom. British national broadsheet newspaper The Sunday Times deemed her bottom a "wonder of nature" and The Sun sponsored a campaign to "have Kylie Minogue's rear-end heritage-listed, preserved for "posteriority" on the grounds that it's an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty." Readers were requested by the tabloid newspaper to persuade the government to make sure "Minogue's bum remains in safe hands - by turning it into a national institution." Rumours and speculations claiming Kylie had undergone plastic surgery to make her bottom look more appealing also began to arise during this time. In the same year, English broadcaster and journalist Johnny Vaughan commented "if an alien landed on Earth he would think Kylie's arse is the world's leader." Kylie's stylist and close friend William Baker explained his decision to "showcase" her bottom in the video, saying, "Kylie's bottom is like a peach - sex sells and her best asset is her bum." Kylie's response to the attention regarding her bottom was "dry," claiming, "You never know what the future holds. It could become a pear." It was reported that she had her bottom insured for five million dollars. The hotpants were deemed "iconic" and were said to be the reason behind "Spinning Around" becoming a "musical and visual anthem in 2000." According to the catalogue entry for the hotpants at the Performing Arts Collection at the Arts Centre, Melbourne, British artist and photographer Katerina Jebb bought them for fifty pence from a flea market and they were only selected for use in the video the night before the shoot, though Kylie had worn them previously for a website photoshoot. She was surprised by the attention they attracted, commenting, "I never imagined what impact a 50p pair of hotpants would have." She also said that the revealing nature of the hotpants made her feel insecure during the shooting, saying, "I actually wasn't confident them, that's the crazy thing. I remember feeling quite self-conscious and kept wrapping a robe around me on set and would discard it right before the take." The garment is often referred to as "those hotpants" and have become a symbol for the singer's vitality and youthfulness. Considered to be one of her trademark looks, the attire she wore in the music video was put on display at "Kylie: The Exhibition" an exhibition that featured "costumes and memorabilia collected over Kylie's career" that held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England & at "Kylie: An Exhibition" a similar exhibition held at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia. It was also included in Kylie's official fashion photography book "Kylie\Fashion." In February of 2014, Kylie donated the hotpants to the Performing Arts Collection museum at the Arts Centre in her hometown of Melbourne. Category:Songs Category:Singles